{"id":28,"date":"2012-04-10T02:45:22","date_gmt":"2012-04-10T02:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/sla2012\/?page_id=28"},"modified":"2012-04-11T20:44:13","modified_gmt":"2012-04-11T20:44:13","slug":"ecuador","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2012\/ecuador\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecuador"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ecuador is a patchwork of indigenous communities, including people of colonial Spanish origins and the descendants of African slaves.<\/p>\n

Its capital, Quito, once a part of the Inca empire, has some of the best-preserved early colonial architecture on the continent.<\/p>\n

Traditionally a farming country, Ecuador’s economy was transformed after the 1960s by the growth of industry and the discovery of oil. There was rapid growth and progress in health, education and housing.<\/p>\n

But by the end of the 20th century a combination of factors, including falling oil prices and damage caused by the weather phenomenon El Nino, had driven the economy into recession.<\/p>\n

Inflation, which had become the highest in the region, led the government to replace the national currency with the US dollar in an effort to curtail it.<\/p>\n

Not all Ecuadorans have benefited equally from oil revenues. The traditionally dominant Spanish-descended elite gained far more than indigenous peoples and those of mixed descent.<\/p>\n

Steps to stabilise the economy, such as austerity measures and privatisation, have generated widespread unrest, particularly among the indigenous poor.<\/p>\n

For a small country, Ecuador has many faces. They include Andean peaks, tropical rainforests and – 1,000 km (600 miles) off the coast – the volcanic Galapagos Islands, home to the animals and birds whose evolutionary adaptations shaped Charles Darwin’s theories.<\/p>\n

Source: BBC World Country Profiles (http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/country_profiles\/default.stm)<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ecuador is a patchwork of indigenous communities, including people of colonial Spanish origins and the descendants of African slaves. Its capital, Quito, once a part of the Inca empire, has some of the best-preserved early colonial architecture on the continent. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":474,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-28","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/474"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":228,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28\/revisions\/228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}